Machida Zelvia 2 - 2 Kawasaki Frontale
Another local-ish derby(ish) and another… ah, not a win on this occasion. But this was, I think, a reasonable result in the circumstances. More about those circumstances later. I’ve got a few things to say in the usual sections, but due to a pretty shitty view from the stands, I imagine that anyone who watched online will have a better idea of what went on in this game. The Gion Stadium might have a relatively new medium-sized ‘back stand’ but the fact is that the view from behind the goal isn’t the best. And it was made worse by the fact that we arrived a bit late, (by which I mean just the one hour before kick off), so ended up quite near the front. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad. The atmosphere was pretty good, with some top level ref and Machida baiting, (not from me on this occasion. At least not wholly). But from my eye level, I couldn’t even see the bottom of the goal. It almost felt as if they’d raised the pitch up a bit and we were watching in a little dip, meaning that the advertising hoardings obscured anything below the kneecaps of the players. This made it a tad tricky to work out if the ball had gone in or not and therefore any celebrations or frustrations started after interpreting the reactions of our players. All of which is to say that I couldn’t see much of what happened and now I’ve started to forget what happened, so expect this post to be the usual old shit. With that in mind, let’s get right into it.
Us -
A few surprises in the starting line up, mainly Takai being absent and Jesiel starting in his place, with Kurumaya coming onto the bench. Further forward we had the usual kind of rotation that we’ve seen recently, with those few players who seem to be un-rotatable keeping their spots and the other usual switches taking place. I’m not sure what to hope for when it comes to Takai. I guess we should hope for him being rested, worry about him being injured and really worry about him being prepared for some kind of janky transfer. In spite of my past comments about him playing amazingly for a few games then dropping a series of absolute clangers, I have to say that he really seems to have come on this season and had a great partnership with Maruyama. Clearly the main talking point of this match has to be the two (probably serious) injuries to Tachibanada and Jesiel, both of which came in the first half. With us having to make two separate changes before half time, (and for a while it looked like we might also have to make a third when Marcinho went down before half time), we were really up against it when it came to being able to use subs to change the game, what with us only having the one change window left. I think I might have just made up the phrase ‘change window’, but hopefully you know what I mean. I understand why, aside from changes made at half time, subs have to be made in a maximum of three slots, but the rule really screwed us in this game. I’ll speak more on the Tachibanada incident later, but with the Jesiel one, whilst it looked kind of innocuous at the time, it quite quickly became apparent that it was serious from his reaction. I guess we can pray that it’s not as bad as Jesiel clearly thought it was, but I suspect it could be another long term injury. And given that he’s had so many, you might have to wonder if it could be even more serious than that. Even though we were put in a tricky situation by those enforced early changes I think we still did a decent job of trying to win in this game. The two goals we conceded looked a bit soft, which was all the more surprising given that recently we’ve looked pretty sturdy at the back. But their first did come directly after our second enforced change of the match and was from one of their grotty long throws. I guess you can’t blame them for pursuing the tactic as it works but… actually do blame them, they are a team of terrible wankers, aren’t they? (Aside from Shimoda of course). At the end of the game I felt like both teams were really going for the win, which was quite nice. At the same time, I feel like with a bit better finishing we could have already been home and dry as we missed some very good chances. But, given the circumstances and the fact that the ref (who somehow Machida thought was against them!! Insane!) was absolute dog shit, a 2-2 draw felt kind of like we’d done quite well. The fact that Machida’s game-plan was able to dictate some of our subs and that the ref seemed to be, if not excactly encouraging their play, but definitely enabling it, meant that a 2-2 draw away from home against a team above us in the table who had an extra man on their team was reason to send me home reasonably content. And the fact that the reasonable contentment could be combined with some top level disgust for certain members of the opposition and some irritation at a ref who always disappoints meant that Sunday evening was quite alright by me.
Them and the ref-
Sometimes I combine these two sections as there’s not much to say about them individually. On this occasion, I think they should go together as they were working hand in hand, one clearly enabling the other. I don’t know how much of this needs to be said in every Machida blog post, but given that this is the first game against them this season I’ll put it in. What a scummy team they are! I don’t think this phrase is often used without the negative, but ‘Machida Zelvia, what’s… to like?’. When usually used in the negative this is a rhetorical question, but for a neutral fan, I think would be hard to come up with something positive to say about them. I guess people who like watching (ex) national team players who have pursued their dream of playing at the ‘highest level’ overseas only to be lured back to the club of their dreams… oh sorry, I meant the club that plays horrible football but can give them more money than others, might be interested in going to watch Machida. What other positives are there? Charismatic and charming manager? Errrrmmm, no. Beautiful football? Errrrmmm, no. A nice and well connected stadium? Ermmm, no. A charming story of a small team of underdogs who through great team work managed to get to the top of J1? Errrrmmm, no. Machida quite rightly don’t seem to have many neutrals’ support and I fully support the neutrals for not supporting them. I don’t really know why they are so horrible as clearly they have good players. But they kicked us all over the pitch in this match and a very weak ref didn’t let the rules of the game interfere with their plans. The foul on Tachibanada was horrible, the Machida player basically just booting him as hard as possible on the front of the ankle. I’d be surprised if we see him playing again soon. The ref Kimura barely gave the foul and wasn’t interested at all in any kind of card. Also, a player who has never particularly annoyed me in the past has now joined my shit list. I don’t remember Soma being such a petulant little twat but he seems to have become a proper arsehole. Perhaps this is just top quality coaching from top quality shithead Kuroda, the Machida manager. As an aside, what a surprise it was to see some power harassment allegations come out about him! And equally surprising to see that the club had a good look at the evidence and decided that there was no case to answer. Perhaps Kuroda also used the ‘Be careful, I’m very close to the owner’ threat on the person who was investigating. But the thing is we knew Machida would be cheating shitbags, so there has to be a lot of blame given to the ref, who was happy to go along with everything. I wasn’t aware that the J League has introduced a personal ref consultation system now. I don’t know why we didn’t use it, as it seemed that everything the ref did had to go through a discussion with Kuroda before it was given. I don’t know if Kimura was intimidated by Kuroda or whether he’s just a shit ref. Actually, there’s a high probability that both are true. And who wouldn’t be intimidated by the sports jacket, white t-shirt, white trainers and skidmark beard that Kuroda rocks? When there’s someone that cool around, there’s no other option than to do exactly what the Machida Fonz wants, right? In my last blog post on a game we had with Kimura I said that he gives way too many cards out. Perhaps he read it and overcorrected in this match as he went from deluge to drought. I reckon they could have had at least two players sent off in the first half and still the arseholes harangued the ref presumably all the way to the officials toilet where he had to look the door and repeatedly press the running water sound button and wait till they went away, probably distracted by someone carrying something that looked like a envelope of cash. Anyway, I’m going to restrict my abuse to just the ref, Kuroda and some of the Machida players and instead switch to poking fun when it comes to the club itself. I was quite baffled by the bizarre loosely-medieval theme they seem to go with for home games. I guess they are trying to promote the image of FORTRESS NOZUTA, which has a certain amount of sense to it, as the first thing everyone knows about castles is that they are usually on a hill with the intention of making approaching it as difficult as possible. Nice that they back up the Fortress Nozuta idea when it comes to their shuttle bus policy. For those who didn’t find the Fortress Nozuta name evocative enough there were some aural and visual hints to push you in the right direction. First the unusual and intriguing music being played in the food area outside the stadium and immediately before the game in the stadium, which was akin to the lightest of EDM being produced with a drum machine and some flutes, pipes and lutes. Or at least the flute, pipe and lute settings on a mid-range Casio. I have to say, I quite enjoyed it, particularly as the bassline was getting a bit farty on the speakers in the food area. Once inside the stadium the medieval vibe was amplified by the bizarre sight of some prancing shirtless flag-wavers who appeared to be dressed in something halfway between a kilt and that sarong that David Beckham briefly flirted with wearing. The whole image was like a cross between the kind of look you’d expect from a guy who does the juggling at battle reenactments and a bordering-on-racist approximation of the genie from Aladdin. Once again, quite intriguing, and wonderfully naff. Big thumbs up for all of this. Big thumbs down though for the old Japanese imperial flags and the big Stone Island flag in their end. And big question marks for the numerous St George's cross flags and for the flag behind their goal that said 'Three Stripes, Two Soles, One Love'. Your guess is as good as mine. So to distill the various themes in this overly long paragraph into single buzz words, I’d say, team - arseholes, tactics - shithousery, vibe - enjoyably bonkers, ref - useless, Kuroda absolute total cu
Ran out of characters in that last paragraph. Seem to remember that happened once before too. This was a surprisingly enjoyable game, but maybe just because of my antipathy towards Machida Zelvia who must be closing in on joining that top level of my most hated teams now. 2-2 was probably fair even if the way they went about securing the draw was far from fair. At least as far as I’m concerned. Next up, no time to breathe before another derby, and this time it’s against the forever top tier hated team YFM. It seems like it should be a good time to play them as they are wonderfully shite this year, but I’d say that almost certainly means that they are going to beat us. After that we’re away at Shimizu on Saturday. The schedule is relentless, so please spare a thought for us bloggers who have to come up with a whole new load of insults, (or at least a new way of expressing them), every three or four days. I think the only right thing to do is send me lots of money so I can spend it on booze as this is the way I come up with all of my best snark. Well, drinking or when I’m in the shower. Best not to mix up those two situations unless you’re using a straw and a well sealed cup. Cheers!
Us -
A few surprises in the starting line up, mainly Takai being absent and Jesiel starting in his place, with Kurumaya coming onto the bench. Further forward we had the usual kind of rotation that we’ve seen recently, with those few players who seem to be un-rotatable keeping their spots and the other usual switches taking place. I’m not sure what to hope for when it comes to Takai. I guess we should hope for him being rested, worry about him being injured and really worry about him being prepared for some kind of janky transfer. In spite of my past comments about him playing amazingly for a few games then dropping a series of absolute clangers, I have to say that he really seems to have come on this season and had a great partnership with Maruyama. Clearly the main talking point of this match has to be the two (probably serious) injuries to Tachibanada and Jesiel, both of which came in the first half. With us having to make two separate changes before half time, (and for a while it looked like we might also have to make a third when Marcinho went down before half time), we were really up against it when it came to being able to use subs to change the game, what with us only having the one change window left. I think I might have just made up the phrase ‘change window’, but hopefully you know what I mean. I understand why, aside from changes made at half time, subs have to be made in a maximum of three slots, but the rule really screwed us in this game. I’ll speak more on the Tachibanada incident later, but with the Jesiel one, whilst it looked kind of innocuous at the time, it quite quickly became apparent that it was serious from his reaction. I guess we can pray that it’s not as bad as Jesiel clearly thought it was, but I suspect it could be another long term injury. And given that he’s had so many, you might have to wonder if it could be even more serious than that. Even though we were put in a tricky situation by those enforced early changes I think we still did a decent job of trying to win in this game. The two goals we conceded looked a bit soft, which was all the more surprising given that recently we’ve looked pretty sturdy at the back. But their first did come directly after our second enforced change of the match and was from one of their grotty long throws. I guess you can’t blame them for pursuing the tactic as it works but… actually do blame them, they are a team of terrible wankers, aren’t they? (Aside from Shimoda of course). At the end of the game I felt like both teams were really going for the win, which was quite nice. At the same time, I feel like with a bit better finishing we could have already been home and dry as we missed some very good chances. But, given the circumstances and the fact that the ref (who somehow Machida thought was against them!! Insane!) was absolute dog shit, a 2-2 draw felt kind of like we’d done quite well. The fact that Machida’s game-plan was able to dictate some of our subs and that the ref seemed to be, if not excactly encouraging their play, but definitely enabling it, meant that a 2-2 draw away from home against a team above us in the table who had an extra man on their team was reason to send me home reasonably content. And the fact that the reasonable contentment could be combined with some top level disgust for certain members of the opposition and some irritation at a ref who always disappoints meant that Sunday evening was quite alright by me.
 |
| A characteristic Tani flap as seen from the trench that the stand behind the goal was in |
Them and the ref-
Sometimes I combine these two sections as there’s not much to say about them individually. On this occasion, I think they should go together as they were working hand in hand, one clearly enabling the other. I don’t know how much of this needs to be said in every Machida blog post, but given that this is the first game against them this season I’ll put it in. What a scummy team they are! I don’t think this phrase is often used without the negative, but ‘Machida Zelvia, what’s… to like?’. When usually used in the negative this is a rhetorical question, but for a neutral fan, I think would be hard to come up with something positive to say about them. I guess people who like watching (ex) national team players who have pursued their dream of playing at the ‘highest level’ overseas only to be lured back to the club of their dreams… oh sorry, I meant the club that plays horrible football but can give them more money than others, might be interested in going to watch Machida. What other positives are there? Charismatic and charming manager? Errrrmmm, no. Beautiful football? Errrrmmm, no. A nice and well connected stadium? Ermmm, no. A charming story of a small team of underdogs who through great team work managed to get to the top of J1? Errrrmmm, no. Machida quite rightly don’t seem to have many neutrals’ support and I fully support the neutrals for not supporting them. I don’t really know why they are so horrible as clearly they have good players. But they kicked us all over the pitch in this match and a very weak ref didn’t let the rules of the game interfere with their plans. The foul on Tachibanada was horrible, the Machida player basically just booting him as hard as possible on the front of the ankle. I’d be surprised if we see him playing again soon. The ref Kimura barely gave the foul and wasn’t interested at all in any kind of card. Also, a player who has never particularly annoyed me in the past has now joined my shit list. I don’t remember Soma being such a petulant little twat but he seems to have become a proper arsehole. Perhaps this is just top quality coaching from top quality shithead Kuroda, the Machida manager. As an aside, what a surprise it was to see some power harassment allegations come out about him! And equally surprising to see that the club had a good look at the evidence and decided that there was no case to answer. Perhaps Kuroda also used the ‘Be careful, I’m very close to the owner’ threat on the person who was investigating. But the thing is we knew Machida would be cheating shitbags, so there has to be a lot of blame given to the ref, who was happy to go along with everything. I wasn’t aware that the J League has introduced a personal ref consultation system now. I don’t know why we didn’t use it, as it seemed that everything the ref did had to go through a discussion with Kuroda before it was given. I don’t know if Kimura was intimidated by Kuroda or whether he’s just a shit ref. Actually, there’s a high probability that both are true. And who wouldn’t be intimidated by the sports jacket, white t-shirt, white trainers and skidmark beard that Kuroda rocks? When there’s someone that cool around, there’s no other option than to do exactly what the Machida Fonz wants, right? In my last blog post on a game we had with Kimura I said that he gives way too many cards out. Perhaps he read it and overcorrected in this match as he went from deluge to drought. I reckon they could have had at least two players sent off in the first half and still the arseholes harangued the ref presumably all the way to the officials toilet where he had to look the door and repeatedly press the running water sound button and wait till they went away, probably distracted by someone carrying something that looked like a envelope of cash. Anyway, I’m going to restrict my abuse to just the ref, Kuroda and some of the Machida players and instead switch to poking fun when it comes to the club itself. I was quite baffled by the bizarre loosely-medieval theme they seem to go with for home games. I guess they are trying to promote the image of FORTRESS NOZUTA, which has a certain amount of sense to it, as the first thing everyone knows about castles is that they are usually on a hill with the intention of making approaching it as difficult as possible. Nice that they back up the Fortress Nozuta idea when it comes to their shuttle bus policy. For those who didn’t find the Fortress Nozuta name evocative enough there were some aural and visual hints to push you in the right direction. First the unusual and intriguing music being played in the food area outside the stadium and immediately before the game in the stadium, which was akin to the lightest of EDM being produced with a drum machine and some flutes, pipes and lutes. Or at least the flute, pipe and lute settings on a mid-range Casio. I have to say, I quite enjoyed it, particularly as the bassline was getting a bit farty on the speakers in the food area. Once inside the stadium the medieval vibe was amplified by the bizarre sight of some prancing shirtless flag-wavers who appeared to be dressed in something halfway between a kilt and that sarong that David Beckham briefly flirted with wearing. The whole image was like a cross between the kind of look you’d expect from a guy who does the juggling at battle reenactments and a bordering-on-racist approximation of the genie from Aladdin. Once again, quite intriguing, and wonderfully naff. Big thumbs up for all of this. Big thumbs down though for the old Japanese imperial flags and the big Stone Island flag in their end. And big question marks for the numerous St George's cross flags and for the flag behind their goal that said 'Three Stripes, Two Soles, One Love'. Your guess is as good as mine. So to distill the various themes in this overly long paragraph into single buzz words, I’d say, team - arseholes, tactics - shithousery, vibe - enjoyably bonkers, ref - useless, Kuroda absolute total cu
Ran out of characters in that last paragraph. Seem to remember that happened once before too. This was a surprisingly enjoyable game, but maybe just because of my antipathy towards Machida Zelvia who must be closing in on joining that top level of my most hated teams now. 2-2 was probably fair even if the way they went about securing the draw was far from fair. At least as far as I’m concerned. Next up, no time to breathe before another derby, and this time it’s against the forever top tier hated team YFM. It seems like it should be a good time to play them as they are wonderfully shite this year, but I’d say that almost certainly means that they are going to beat us. After that we’re away at Shimizu on Saturday. The schedule is relentless, so please spare a thought for us bloggers who have to come up with a whole new load of insults, (or at least a new way of expressing them), every three or four days. I think the only right thing to do is send me lots of money so I can spend it on booze as this is the way I come up with all of my best snark. Well, drinking or when I’m in the shower. Best not to mix up those two situations unless you’re using a straw and a well sealed cup. Cheers!
Team
GK 98. YAMAGUCHI Louis
DF 5. SASAKI Asahi
DF 4. JESIEL
DF 35. MARUYAMA Yuichi
DF 13. MIURA Sota
MF 8. TACHIBANADA Kento
MF 19. KAWAHARA So
MF 41. IENAGA Akihiro
MF 14. WAKIZAKA Yasuto
MF 23. MARCINHO
FW 9. ERISON
Subs
GK 1. JUNG Sung-Ryong
MF 6. YAMAMOTO Yuki (on for TACHIBANADA 15')
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro (on for JESIEL 33')
DF 7. KURUMAYA Shintaro (on for JESIEL 33')
MF 17. ITO Tatsuya (on for IENAGA 70')
FW 18. SEGAWA Yusuke
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 70')
FW 24. MIYAGI Ten (on for MARCINHO 70')
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai
FW 18. SEGAWA Yusuke
FW 20. YAMADA Shin (on for ERISON 70')
FW 24. MIYAGI Ten (on for MARCINHO 70')
FW 26. YAMAUCHI Hinata
DF 31. VAN WERMESKERKEN Sai
My Frontale Man Of The Match
The way Machida played made this a difficult game for any of our players to particularly stand out as it’s tough to show what you can do when the other team are just employing spoiling tactics and the ref is useless. However, for the gutsiness and the goal, I’ll give it to…
KAWAHARA So - I really like him.
KAWAHARA So - I really like him.
Goals
ERISON (Frontale) 16' 0-1
OKAMURA (Machida) 34' 1-1
NISHIMURA (Machida) 53' 2-1
KAWAHARA (Frontale) 73' 2-2
Highlights
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